A concerned nurse who called an elderly Melrose Park man Thursday alerted police after his live-in caretaker answered the phone and said his client had fallen out of bed and that he wouldn’t help him up, prosecutors said.

Joseph W. Whitehead, 37, allegedly told both the nurse and responding officers that it was the 66-year-old’s own fault that he had fallen off his bed and that the man would have to get up himself. Assistant State’s Attorney Sean Brady said officers found the man on the ground smelling of urine and with flaky skin when they arrived at his home in the west suburb’s 1400 block of North 23rd Avenue.

Brady said police found empty bottles of alcohol and cigarettes scattered around the home. Whitehead referred to his client as an expletive both to officers and the nurse, the prosecutor said.

Whitehead was arrested Thursday and charged with two counts of felony elder neglect and abuse. In bond court Saturday, Judge Laura Marie Sullivan ordered him jailed on $75,000 bail.

Arrest and booking photos are provided by law enforcement officials. Arrest does not imply guilt, and criminal charges are merely accusations. A defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty and convicted.

The Rev. Emily Gage chose not to take what happened shortly after she started at Frank Lloyd Wright's Unity Temple as an omen. “Right after I began, in the fall of '08, a giant piece of ceiling fell down right above the pulpit,” she said.